1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to mechanism for verifying audio output at a client device. More specifically, the present invention is directed to verifying that audio output at a client device matches audio data sent to the client device and that the audio output at the client device is at a volume level desired by the sender of the audio data.
2. Description of Related Art
Advertising via the Internet has fast become a principle mechanism by which manufacturers and providers of goods and services are able to make the public aware of their offerings. Such advertising may take the form of pop-up ads, banner ads, and the like, which are associated with a web page that is accessed by a user of a client device having a web browser application. More often, these web based advertisements have associated sound that may convey additional advertisement information to the user of the web browser application, i.e. the potential customer.
The problem with advertisements having an audio component to them is that there is no guarantee that the user of the web browser on the client device has the audio output volume, i.e. speaker volume, turned to a sufficient level that the user is able to hear the audio component to the advertisement. This problem exists because the user of the client device has control over the speaker volume and thus, may intentionally or unintentionally have the speaker volume turned low or off so that the audio component of the advertisement is not heard by the user. As a result, the advertisement is not as effective as it would have been had the speaker volume been turned to a sufficient level to allow the user to experience the entire advertisement.
This may especially be a problem when a user is provided with access to resources in exchange for agreeing to view/listen to advertising. For example, a user may choose to not pay a monthly services fee for Internet access from an Internet Service Provider and as a result, agree to viewing/listening to advertising while browsing the World Wide Web. In such cases, the user may be able to circumvent his/her duty to listen to the advertisement by turning the speaker volume down or off and yet still be provided with access to the resources.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have an apparatus and method for verifying the audio output at a client device.